Just some updates...

Hey everybody!  I just wanted to let you all know a couple of things, then show you a little bit of my organizer that I shared with you in this post on December 29th, 2012.

JUST A FEW FRIENDS NEWS:

First, we have a new cub in the group!  Carrie, welcome to our crafty den!!!  I know you all are going to love what she brings to the world of glitter and glue!!!

Second, we are having our Valentine's Day blog hop THIS SATURDAY!!!  Please come by and check it out!!  It's going to be fun!

Tutorials coming!

I plan on starting the tutorials for my Tall Skinny Mini, on February 16th.  My plan is to have a tutorial here and on YouTube.  Hopefully the video recordings will cooperate with me.  The last one I did had me exasperated!  But, I will try!

So, now to my planner update.  I am a paper geek and I love planners and lists and writing things.  I also want to be creative.  I made my planner because other planners just don't serve my needs.  I have a link to my planner in the first paragraph above, go check it out if you haven't already.  My planner is a work in progress.  I am constantly tweaking it, so it suits my needs.  I don't have a lot to keep under control, but what I have, I want to be ORGANIZED and FUN!

I have been surfing a lot of internet looking for ideas and such to incorporate into my planner.  This idea came something I saw on Pinterest.  It's shown in this post, here.

I found this paper at the local Office Max, and then I dug out my tissue tapes, and went to work.  I covered the holes that were prepunched in the paper with the tape on both sides of the paper.  Then I repunched with my ARC paper punch.  Taa Daa, pretty papers to work in my planner.

 

 I made a plastic sheet to store all of the sticky notes that I want to put in my book.  The 4x6" notes you see here I made myself.  They were totally easy to do!!!

Here is the plastic page turned, more notes on this side.

 Here are some of my notes from the "research" I did on the internet about organizing and planning.

Here are some of the notes I did on my "project pages" while I was trying to figure out the January Blog Hop Project.  

 Here is February's Blog Hop brainstorming notes...no peeking!

 These project pages I made to have a foldout piece for more notes...

 I was at Big Lots the other day and they had Guest Check books for CHEAPPPPPP!!!  The checks are on heavier papers, so I got them, and punched them.  I think they will make a cool addition for extra notes as I need them.  I have other notes in this pocket as well!  The "Hit-List to Get #hit Done" to do list came from here.  The "Currently" journal cards came from Creativity Prompt, here.  I also made tabbed pages from security envelopes and graph paper.

Here is the start of my planner.  Not too exciting.

Getting better, a little bit at a time...

More creative, becoming more fun.  I am adding pictures and words cut from magazines and junk mail. I added stickers and sticky notes.  (NOOOOOO, I AM NOT GIVING ANYONE THE BIRD!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!  I just noticed this...sorry!!!  I was just trying to hold the papers so you can see!!!!!

This is this weeks layout.  I had to add the smaller yellow card stock page to hold my sticky notes.  I am really loving sticky notes.  The paper I am holding is my page marker.

My blog planner that I came up with.  I am dividing each page into two, for Wednesdays and Saturdays.  It seems to be working for me pretty good!

This morning I dug out my old Franklin Covey planner purse-bag.  I have had this for about 15 years.  I haven't used it in about 12!  I am planning (PUN INTENDED) on using it to carry my planner and supplies.  It is too big to put in my purse, so nowI carry this and my purse to work.  But, it is like a little briefcase!!   I did make a sort of "satellite" book to put in my purse to catch things I need to write down and then put in my planner later.

I have a holder that I have scissors, a mini stapler, erasers, mechanical pencil leads, and a pushup crayon-pencil!

On the inside pocket I put an assortment of pens and highlighters.  You never know when you will need it.

I hope you liked the  latest version of my lovely little organizer.  If you have any questions, please let me know!!!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!!!

"SAVE THE DATE!!!"

Welcome everybody!!  This is the Just a Few Friends January Blog Hop!!!  I am sooooo glad that you all came over to check out what I have be up to in my Den!  We have all been super busy coming up with  purrfectly awesome projects to share.  By now, you have seen several of my Cub family's projects!  You should have come to by from RJ's den, here.  Elsa, our incredibly talented Den Momma starts the whole blog hop, and if you found me whilst you were prowling around the internet, please go to Elsa's blog and start pouncing along from the beginning.  I will have a list of everyone's blogs, in our Den's order, at the end of this post.

ALSO...We are announcing that we all have Fan Pages on FACEBOOK!!!

Click on this link http://justafewfriendz.blogspot.com/ and it will take you the PRIDES page where you will find everyones FAN PAGE address (See the sidebar on the left) so you can come and LIKE US!!! We will be posting not only PRIDE related hops but also other projects we created hoping to inspire you to create! 

This month, we were challenged to come up with a calendar in honor of the new year.  I have just finished my planner, so now I wanted to concentrate on a type of perpetual calendar.  I had inspiration from these sources I found on Pinterest.  Have I told you how much I love Pinterest?  I am sure you do too!  This perpetual calendar and this perpetual calendar really caught my eye!  So, that is what I based my design on.

Without further ado, here is my project...  I have a video on YouTube also, so please some check it out!

 This hangs on my craft room door.  You only have to more the "sticks" as I am calling them.  I figured out how many of them you need to make to create any month you want to create.

The month cards are double sided and interchange easily with the clips.

 Here is a closeup of the "sticks".  I love the fact that you only have to change 7 things, instead of 31 different squares for the days.  These are also double sided.  I made nine of these total.

Hee is the back view.  I made an envelope pocket to contain the extra month cards and sticks.

 This is a closeup of the embellishments I used.

I just love how it turned out!!!  The papers are Recollections (card stock) and Graphic 45.  I used Prima flowers, Recollections bling, Tim Holtz clips, Tim Holtz Distress Ink and Stickles.  The metal embellishments are also Tim Holtz.   I made the tiny black flowers ("Teeny Tiny Rose") by using the tutorial I found here, by Scrapalette.  We Are Memory Keepers made the eyelets I used to thread the ribbon through.

Now I'm going to attempt to explain how I made the "sticks".   If you want to make your own version of this you will need to make 9 of them altogether.  They are double sided.  They each have 6 squares for the numbers of the days.  Below is the  list of numbers, I'm using the * to represent a blank square.  If you look at the pictures above, it will make more sense.  The first row of numbers on one side, the second on the other and so on.   (I realize that these are horizontal and they should be vertical but I couldn't figure out how to do it...sorry!!!  If you have questions, please let me know.)

1     8     15     22     29     *   (Then, on the other side do the following numbers)
1     8     15     22     *       *   (There is no day 29 unless it's leap year.)

2     9     16     23     *       *
*     2       9     16     23     *    (This stick is for February only, as it has 28 or 29 days

2     9     16     23     30     *
*     2      9      16     23     30  (For all other months)

3     10     17     24     *      *
*      3      10     17     24    *  (Some months have no 31st)

3     10     17     24     31     *
*      3     10      17     24     31

4     11     18     25     *     *
*      4      11     18     25   *

5     12     19     26     *     *
*      5      12     19     26   *

6     13     20     27     *     *
*      6     13      20     27   *

7     14     21     28      *      *
*      7      14     21      28    * 


So, that is that!!  I hope you enjoyed your stay in my Crafty Den.  Please go on over to Sherain has in store for you in her Den.

And, as promised, here is the list of my Den Family, in order of appearance in the blog hop.

Elsa       http://justafewdesigns.blogspot.com

Krystal   http://krystalsnight.blogspot.com

Suzie   http://scrappingsuzieqtt.blogspot.com

Linda    http://simpleandsassycreations.blogspot.com

Margaret  http://auntmargaretdesigns.blogspot.com

Bon   http://tootiebeeblebugcreations.blogspot.com 

Rj       http://thriftycrafterdude.blogspot.com

Michelle http://www.creativeoperation.blogspot.com/

Sherence http://proudmommy702.blogspot.com/

Yvette http://daileyscrapper.blogspot.com

Don't forget to leave a comment and let everyone know what a ROARINGLY GOOD JOB they did!

Happy Birthday, Susan!

Hi everyone!  I have been sooooo busy!  I have a couple  of announcements to make, and then I want to share a card that I made.

You all know that I am involved in a great group of crafty folks, we are called "Just a Few Friends."  We all are in the process of preparing "Fan pages" on Facebook.  Mine is located here.  Please stop by and "Like" my page!  When all of our our Fan pages done, I will have their page links here as well so you can visit their pages too!  We are going to have our projects as well as information on our blog hops and other activities.

The next blog hop we are doing is THIS SATURDAY!!!  Please come on by and check it out!  It is going to be AWESOME!!!

 I am working on the tutorials for the pages in my "Tall Skinny Mini" and am planning on getting them to you soon.

Now for todays project...


A friend of our had her 50th birthday, and this is the card that I made for her.

 I used Graphic 45's "Ladies Diary" collection for this card.  I didn't want to do the "over the hill" kind of 50th birthday, I wanted it to be classy and elegant.

I printed this sentiment in my word processing program.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Tall Skinny Mini

 Well, here it is.  Several months of work and such, coming up with a new "mini" album.  I say this loosely because it is 12" tall and 6" wide on the covers!  But the pages themselves are only 4" wide, hence the name "Tall Skinny Mini" album.  I love how it turned out!!!

 My inspiration came from the "Witches Journal" I saw on YouTube by CreaBoetiek.  She created a lovely album and I was fascinated by it, but one problem...she didn't do a tutorial on how she made it.  I decided to come up with my own album and here it is!  I am planning on doing a series of tutorial on this album, because each and every page is different!  I made 8 pages for this book, but I have come up with14 different combinations of how to create pages from a single 12x12" paper!

I have made a video on my YouTube channel, here.  Please come check it out.  I know that this post is long, but these pictures really don't show just how much fun stuff is packed in this album!

 I came up with a clever way to cover the edges of the 12" tall chipboard edges with paper, because I really don't like "raw" edges.  I also used the "Stack the Deck" binding system by Laura Denison.  I think in the video I said "Hidden Hinge".  FORGIVE ME!!  I used "Stack the Deck"!!!  I will definitely have to fix that or edit it or something.  Jeez!  I really don't want to have to do the whole video again!!

 There are multiple pockets and pages in all different sizes.

 There are tags, and tags that are actually booklets.

 Some of the tags come out of the top of the pages, and have flaps that fold down onto the page.

 I used Graphic 45's Old Curiosity Shoppe papers for this project.

 I also used embellishments by Recollections, Bo Bunny, Petaloo, Tim Holtz, and 7 Gypsies.

 Lots of places to put pictures, hide journaling, etc.

 Sorry...long post.

 Almost done.

 OK, maybe not, but isn't it beautiful!

 I made the covers so much wider than the pages so that things can stick out a lot with out being in danger of getting smooshed.

 Tall pockets, short pockets, skinny pockets, OH MY!

 I made pockets out of paper pieces too.

 OK, that's it for now.  Please check out the YouTube videos and see what inspired me, and see the whole explanation of all of the wonderful things I put in my album.  I hope you like it, and I will be doing a tutorial series soon!  Please, please, please, let me know what you think!!!

Stay crafty, my friends.

Happy Freezin' Season Mini Album

 After seeing Kathy Orta's YouTube tutorials on this "December Daily 2" mini album, I decided to make it. Here is my version.  I did not see all of the videos before I actually started making it.  Her album is supposed to be a gatefold style, I didn't wait, and mine is a regular style mini album, but it is wide!!!  The spine is 3 1/2"!!  It still turned out very awesome, and I love how it looks.  I am not using it as a December Daily, but as a winter themed mini album.

 I am going to put a list of the supplied I used to make this at the end of the post.

 It has 12 "page sets" in all.  I didn't even count how many pockets and tags there are.  This book can hold a TON of pictures.  I used kraft envelopes from Michaels to make my pages.  Those made the "page sets" very thick.  Next time I will use the thinner envelopes that she used.  It will make them less thick, and then I can embellish more.  But, I used what I had in my stash, so that's why the kraft envelopes and cards.

 Since the envelopes are thick, I used thin papers to cover them, which helped.

 There are lots of pull outs and different size pockets created.  There are 3 styles of "page sets", and you make 4 of each style.

Watch all of her videos FIRST, half of the pages are supposed to be made "reverse" for the gatefold style.  I made all of the pages before I knew that, which is why this style of binding suited my pages better.  Patience is sometimes not one of my virtues.  I used the "Stack the Deck" style of binding by Laura Denison.

 I am only showing you the first three "page sets".  I tried to make them all different.

Most of my page embellishments, like this "Winter" one, is adhered on the bottom edge only so that pictures can be tucked behind them.

 This polar bear cracks me up!

Well, I hope you liked it!  Here is a list of supplies:

Papers:  DCWV and Echo Park
Envelopes and Cards:  Recollections
Stickers:  Echo Park and EK Success
Die Cut Snowflakes:  Pink Paisley
Rhinestones:  Queen and Co.
Brad:  Bo Bunny
Distress Ink:  Tim Holtz
Punches:  Fiskars, EK Success
Clear Plastic Snowflakes:  Imaginisce
Glittered Plastic Snowflakes:  Sierra Pacific Crafts
Other:  Chipboard, ribbon, Scoretape, Liquid Glue

Stay Crafty, and Warm, My Friends!!

A card for Max!

I was surfing all over Pinterest the other day and came across this cool tutorial on how to make a "Zipper Card" by PapertreyInk.  This link will take you to her video.  In it, she used dies specially made to make this card.  But, unfortunately, I didn't have the die, and I needed the card that day...so I had to figure out how to make it on my own.

 I got out my supplies, and went to work.  The paper cutter I have above has a perforated blade attachment, so I thought maybe I could use that instead of the die.

 The front of the card ended up looking like this...I stamped "Pull" on the tab that I created using the perforating blade.

 Underneath ( and this is my practice piece, so I didn't ruin the card!!!) I stamped the sentiment.

On the inside I hand cut the spot where I wrote the message, then I punched the border paper, creating a pocket to put Max's birthday cash in.

He loved the card!!  It turned out great, and worked perfectly.  Obviously it would have been soooooo much easier if I had the die, but this turned out pretty good.  Go check out her video, and see what you think!

Stay Crafty, My friends!